brenda klassen, a reaaal class act.

i probably won't get my damage deposit back, but at least my crazy old (as in previous, and also as in OLD) landlord got a giant fine. ha ha. i happened to be googling her yesterday and found this article from last month:

Despite claims she would rather die than see her tenants hurt, a Calgary landlady was convicted yesterday of jeopardizing their safety.

Provincial court Judge Les Grieve fined Brenda Klassen's Sonchris Developments Ltd. $40,000, for four safety code violations involving fire security breaches.

Grieve convicted the company, which is solely owned by Klassen, of not having its fire alarms and extinguishers checked within the required 12-month period.

Klassen was also found to have not posted signage telling people to call 911 if they triggered a building alarm and had inadequate emergency lighting at her property at 312 3 Ave. N.E.

Klassen was ticketed by fire inspector Jim Heynen after he discovered the violations during an April 17, 2006, check of the property.

In testimony, Klassen said she was having trouble maintaining her equipment after the individual who did the work in all four of her Calgary buildings retired, leaving her scrambling to find someone else. She said she would never intentionally put any of her tenants at risk.

"If anybody came to any harm because of me I don't think I'd want to live," said Klassen, who has owned rental properties for five decades.

But Grieve rejected her claim, finding Klassen's only motivation for not getting the work done was to save a buck.

"Mrs. Klassen clearly longs for the days gone by when one person could do this for little cost," the judge said.

vancouver

was awesome. here is my trip:

we spent around 16 hours on the greyhound to get there, but it wasn't really that bad. it went pretty fast, despite greyhound being so ghetto. i took a bunch of stuff to keep myself entertained on the bus, like some knitting, some pants i wanted to patch up, and a book (in case i happened to be post-carsick), but they didn't have any lights on at all. not the low lit panel that goes along the side, and there were no overhead personal lights. we had to board in the dark and when we got off the bus i ended up seeing a brownish stain on my seat, eww! there was a lot more examples of the ghetto-ness, but oh well, it got us there and it was cheap.

when we got off the bus, we charged our phone at a coffee shop and for some reason Paul bought a china-man hat... you know the ones, right? then we walked directly though east hastings. fucking crazy and it was only 10 am!

we found our way out to Richmond, where we were staying. paul carried all my stuff, and even pushed me in a shopping cart for the last leg. we were staying at some calgary friend's of his, and they have a great apartment filled with bikes and a hammock.
we stayed out there for a few days, going for awesome bike rides and blazin' and having the usual stoner conversation about how the world is messed up.

all of us went on a mountain side ride that was nice. we got to share the path with a million longboarders in training, it was cute. we got off the path for a bit and watched some dragonfly sex and looked at trees. paul and i road in to granville island, stanley park, and downtown 'couver.

for a few days after that we stayed with my friend in the downtown east side and it was a nice change, and kind of funny, suddenly being so close to everything that we had just struggled to ride our bikes too the previous day. we had brought a "fun" chocolate bar along with us that we were sort of rationing. we finally ate the majority of that and hit up an awesome arcade downtown. i love pinball! it's my new favorite thing. i love the combination of digital and analog that makes up the machine. my favorite was the adam's family one. oh look, here is a picture of it that i googled.
we did some more bike rides and i attempted to find shoes because mine were on the verge, but it's impossible. i ended up getting some at a vintage clothing store in kitsilano pretty randomly on the last day.
we ended the trip with the nudie beach at UBC. it was wonderful - so hot and sunny, and being naked on the beach is GREAT.

we decided to fly back and we got a ride from paul's brother, straight from the beach to the airport with no time to spare.

i tend to not take great photos, but here are 5 sort of:

• a slug on the path. we were all kind of concerned he would get run over so we watched him cross for quite a while.
• paul in the only underwear he brought on the trip, on a beach downtown.
• me walking to wreck beach. i knew the nude portion was coming up, so i was half way there already.
• a night bike ride. i think i was actually from a boys' only ride. i was in the hammock sleeping already.
• bamboo in stanley park. paul climbed it, i watched.

soon.

• soon i will have the most organized desk ever. i took everything out, organized it into logical piles and now i'm putting it back in.

• my teeth hurt all the time. well not ALL the time. only when i eat really sugary stuff... which is ALMOST all the time. ow, it hurts. i will go to the dentist soon

• dan leahul is back in calgary for a month. we are hanging out as soon as he gets here.

• i'm taking a long long bus ride to vancouver with paul tomorrow. we just bought the tickets today. we didn't plan very much of anything and now the trip is very soon.

ps - i brought my new bike home today. it's still got a free wheel (single speed) on it, but you can probably guess when i will be changing that.... (SOON!)

don't worry, i'll keep brakes on my other bike for big hills

maybe it's NOT officially fall.... YESSSSSS.

i finally paid the huge fine i've had on my library card all summer. it was up to $36. yikes. i'm happy to be back on track, i realized when i was there how much i missed the library. they are actually going to be tearing down my library in not too long as they are building a new, futuristic one a few blocks over. kind of sad...

SO i was doing some volunteering at the Good Life (Bike Shop) a few days ago and long story short, i found a new bike. yayayay. it's a glittery green apollo, just my size, that the greaser was going to turn into a single speed anyway. i jumped in there and so far i took out the extra chain rings, removed all the shifters and gear bullshit, put new VELVET bar tape on it, and put a new chain on it. there is still some work to do... like take off the brakes, because ima gunna fixie it!

the new stopping technique i must learn and perfect so i don't die:

RECAP PACER

alrighty, we saw somebody raking leaves today so i guess that's it... cusp of fall.

time to recap the summer, RIGHT??

well, i kicked it off by fixing up my first bike, planting some tomatoes and sunflowers in pots on my balcony, and volunteering to be in charge of the compost at the Looogie House (they have a garden and compost bins, other than that, not important).

the couple of jonathan and kelsey had really lost it's cohesion and we had been fighting ALL the time and i thought about escaping to B.C. and then Belgium. but he had lost his job and i finally convinced him the best thing would be if he just went back to quebec... so he did. phew. a chapter closed.

sometime in between breaking up with jp and him leaving, i met paullllo. paul. he likes cracking necks and backs and fingers and toes. he likes cold hands on his back. he is resourceful. he has rough hands and he feels like safety. his physical being is a marvel to me!
it's been a few months of coupleness and no complaints here. we've made every every day together a good, full, positive one. with the help/inspiration/guidance/company of him i have done a bunch of stuff from my LIFE TO DO LIST that i made a while back, mostly nature, nurture and fixing bikes. we both got really into the composting project and ended up with a slightly demanding daily route of other cafes providing compost material. basically summer 09 was a summer of compost for me.

in august i moved out of the cracked-out apartment and into a basement suite with a garage and a greenhouse in the back. paul's been hard at work setting up a whole hydroponic growing centre in there. it's so amazing! almost daily i check the plants, including peas, cucumbers and peppers, and the amount of growth is mind blowing to me. in a few weeks most of them have grown the craziest, longest roots ever. i'm not sure what's going to happen to the whole system once it gets colder.

lame giant blog post, i know. but whatever, that's been my summer.

a lot of blogs i've read lately are about clothes and fashion or music. i feel really disconnected from all of that. i don't really get into music the same way. i put on music just to have something playing, but i don't really care to look for new stuff.
i haven't bought new clothes for a long time, because i have no money.. ever. but now i'm even more consciously adamant about wearing out the ones i already have.

i kind of feel like i am really on to something as far as my lifestyle goes. i'm turning into such a bicycle zealot because i think that it's the easiest, most accessible step towards EVERYthing good. physical activity, sustainability, community. there are no draw backs from bikes (except for accidents i guess).
as far as the "lifestyle" thing.. or living life goes, there is still so much to learn and a zillion ways to improve, but i made some giant steps this summer and i'm hyped up for the next season.


here's a photo of us on a break from longboarding with some rum & lemons. i don't believe they get much better than this:

i found him.

MJ RIP KING OF POP CANT BELIEVE IT OMG!

everybody is facebookin' the shit out of michael jackson's death, but i'm better than that; i'll BLOG about it.
it's really weird, and surreal and stupid. i hate the facebook reaction to these big "universal" events. we're all so predictable.



jonathan is leaving tomorrow night. i will definitely miss him, but it just has to be over for now.

sled island is happening this weekend, but i'm just trying to keep my head down and ignore it. head down, blinders on, and wallet closed. i really really wanted to see final fantasy, but meh, i'll forget about it soon enough.

i just emailed my potential au pair family in belgium and told them i am in.
now i just have to get them to ok me.. and then i have a million other things to do.

i had a really intense week with lots of talks about the future. but i also slept outside, rode a lot of bikes, laid in my hammock a ton, all with a crushy feeling.



for chris, here is a bad photo of my bike. it was the first photo i took with my fish eye camera and it didn't quite work out but bah.

bike/work/chips/news

my bike is SO PIMPIN.
i wish i knew bike lingo so i could detail all the work i have done on it. on the superficial side, i just put some vibrant blue wrap on the handlebars, it's pretty. i'll take a photo or two. previously i have taken the part where the pedals attach in the middle out, cleaned it, and greased the ball bearings. i think that was called re-packing the hub..? i also tightened and loosened the spokes on both wheels so that they roll straighter - aka "truing the wheels". i put new cables on the brakes and new cable housing on some of the gears.

i started opening up the cafe at 5 IN THE AM. can you believe that?? i used to have the most trouble getting to creb for 9! i started two days ago, and so far so good. it's hard to get up early, but the roads are empty so i can just rip there on my bike and it's nice to finish work at 1.

right now i'm eating some chips that just came in my spud delivery, and i have to give a shoutout because they are seriously amazing. kettle brand! mmm! right now i've got sea salt & vinegar, but i've also tried honey dijon and salt & pepper and they were all delicious. and they have "absolutely nothing artificial" in them.

if you share the same disgusting fascination with bill o'reilly, glenn beck and sean hannity and the rest of the right wing news pundits, you might appreciate this website - news hounds their slogan is "we watch fox news so you don't have to".

AHHHHHH.

oh my goooodness.

i knew my apartment wasn't anything SPECIAL, but i've learned some information that i can't unlearn...


when we moved we were so rushed that we hadn't even viewed the suite we ended up in. i wanted originally to rent a different suite but the landlord told me how nice this other one was and that i should take it instead, so whatever, i thought apartments are all so generic so it didn't matter much. we signed the lease and then i took off to europe.

it was mentioned it had been "a lot of work" to clean this particular place. but last night i learned the full extent of the "work" done. i got to hanging out with the ex-resident manager of my building (he quite working for her and was charged like $3000 in his move out inspection) - the previous crackheaded tenants were here for 7 years and the horrors include: barf on the floors, syringes in the cupboards and potential poop on the walls. apparently the fridge hadn't been working for about 2 years and was full of all kinds of rotten, there was a fish in the oven, ketchup on the ceiling, and they had used the screen doors roller as an ash tray. i was assured everything was pressure washed, gutted, and replaced - we have a new fridge, oven, and sink and the walls are new and the resident manager told me that he himself would live in the suite after the cleaning he gave it. but that's not comforting me quite enough. two glaring exceptions to the "everything was replaced" claim are haunting me - the carpet and the bathtub. dun dun dun.

my skin is just a crawlin'. i need to get out of here now now now now.

in addition to that mind fuck, i've ALSO heard that the $3000 charge upon moving out is to be expected, there are melting extension cords in the furnace room, and she has held tenants' shoes hostage several times! i've also learned the commotion that i have sometimes heard but never witnessed because i don't have a fucking peep hole was most likely crackheads doing cracky things in the hallways. half the "lowlifes" (as she was caught on tape calling the tenants) in the building are filing lawsuits and getting out, and they have files and files on her indiscriminate business practices.

again, i knew it wasn't the suavest building, and i definitely knew the landlord was crazy, but i couldn't have imagined all of this.